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Responding to the crisis

How we can work together to address the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic poses an unprecedented challenge for our country, threatening our health, wellbeing and democracy. Now more than ever, we need to work together to ensure that our government has a coordinated, strategic response to safeguard the public’s health, protect consumers from emerging dangers and ensure people can still participate fully in our democracy.

U.S. PIRG has assembled a COVID-19 response team of policy experts, state advocates, organizers and researchers. And we are coordinating the efforts of the PIRGs around the country through our national lobbying office (U.S. PIRG). If we all pull together, we can find concrete ways to protect public health, consumers and our democracy. Here’s how you help:

Comprehensive testing now

Our health professionals don’t have enough fast and accurate COVID-19 tests to meet the current crisis, and we’ll need widespread testing to be able to move beyond social distancing. We’re calling on the head of testing to immediately adopt a comprehensive testing plan to meet this need.

We’re months into the COVID-19 crisis, and health professionals in some areas of the country still lack the supplies they need to protect themselves and care for patients. That's why we're calling on Congress to immediately pass the Medical Supply Transparency and Delivery Act, which would establish a central, transparent system for procuring and distributing critical medical supplies directly to impacted areas.

How do you avoid phishing and other online scams? Can you get a refund for travel expenses? How do you protect your credit? We’ve assembled a set of consumer tips and guides, and will add more in the days to come.

Public health experts agree, lifting social distancing orders too soon, or without the proper infrastructure in place could cost us thousands of lives, and prolong the impact of the pandemic. As states reopen, we're calling on Governors to follow the advice of public health experts, like former FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb, and put in places a set of critical recommendations for how to safely reopen the state.

No one should have to choose between getting sick and participating in our democracy. To ensure that every eligible voter can safely cast their ballot amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. PIRG is calling on states to adopt emergency universal absentee voting.

As the demand for ventilators and equipment used to diagnose and treat COVID-19 rises, we need to make sure equipment is working. We are calling on manufacturers to make all their repair information and service keys available immediately, and recently some manufacturers, including GE and Zoll have responded. We're working to make sure that every ventilator manufacturer gives hospitals what they need.

For many people, whether or not they can pay their bills or meet all of their financial obligations will be out of their control until after the COVID-19 crisis is over. Credit bureaus should stop all negative credit reporting about consumers until the coronavirus pandemic ends and consumers have made it back onto their feet.

Congress and the president must focus on addressing the urgent health crisis and meeting the immediate needs of Americans — not rushing through hastily drawn-up bailouts to industries that harm our health or are not essential to Americans’ daily lives right now.

Many people across the United States are bracing for weeks of school closures and social distancing and are searching for ways to make the most of this challenging period. To help parents grapple with the new realities of child-rearing during social distancing, we've come up with a list of 25 activities kids can do to make a positive impact from home.

I’ve been reading the CFPB’s mail. It’s okay, you can too. It’s public. Not surprisingly, the latest CFPB consumer complaints paint a grim picture of the pandemic’s effect on family finances. I ask: Why isn’t the CFPB doing more to help struggling consumers?

U.S. PIRG has joined leading consumer and banking organizations to applaud a bi-partisan Senate bill to broaden protections in the recent COVID-19 stimulus package. Under the CARES Act, Congress exempted Economic Impact Payments from offset for debts owed to federal and state agencies, except in the case of child support, but did not exempt them from court-ordered garnishment to pay creditors.

Tens of millions of Americans with mortgages have been put in a tough spot by the coronavirus crisis. Many more consumers will likely seek forbearance or loan modifications in the weeks and months ahead.

Thousands of Americans have cancelled travel plans as the coronavirus pandemic sweeps the country -- but it's still nearly impossible to get money back from airlines for cancelled tickets. This bill will change that, requiring airlines to offer full refunds to all travelers who cancel their plans.

U.S. PIRG delivered a letter lawmakers Monday, May 18, signed by 326 hospital repair experts, calling for manufacturers to stop withholding what technicians need to fix medical equipment like ventilators. It’s part of U.S. PIRG's larger Right to Repair Campaign, which aims to remove unnecessary barriers to repair that drive up costs for product owners and increase electronic waste.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the latest coronavirus stimulus package on May 15, The Heroes Act. The legislation includes provisions that would improve central coordination of the medical supply chain and testing infrastructure.

The Wisconsin Supreme Court invalidated the Department of Health Services’ extension of the state’s stay-at-home order on May 13, with immediate effect. WISPIRG Director Peter Skopec issued the following statement in response.

On May 13, Governor Hogan announced plans to lift the statewide stay at home order and ease state restrictions on retail, manufacturing, houses of worship, and some personal services. His announcement gives individual jurisdictions power to make decisions regarding the timing of reopening locally.

We're calling on Congress to immediately pass the Medical Supply Transparency and Delivery Act, which would establish a central, transparent system for procuring and distributing critical medical supplies directly to impacted areas.

U.S. PIRG, Get Us PPE and Doctors for America co-hosted a panel on which leading physicians and U.S. Rep. Andy Kim (N.J.) from the House Select Committee on the Coronavirus Crisis discussed how we can keep health care workers safe, so that they, in turn, can treat the general public.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday released “Restore Illinois,” his administration’s plan to safely ease state restrictions on business, education, and recreation implemented in response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The plan sets out five phases of reopening, with criteria for moving from one phase to the next, and the ability to move back if conditions worsen.

A virtual panel hosted by U.S. PIRG, Doctors for America, and Get Us PPE. Health experts, physicians, and elected officials will discuss the challenges in obtaining personal protective equipment, the need for comprehensive testing infrastructure, and solutions to address supply chain issues, including a lack of coordination.

Americans are eager to move beyond the shelter-in-place phase of the coronavirus response. But many are still anxious about safety. Public health leaders have laid out our next steps. State and local officials should follow the experts’ advice.

We're calling on the White House to help prevent price hikes and needless competition when it comes to crucial medical equipment by coordinating a centralized system for the purchase and distribution of supplies directly to areas in need.

U.S. PIRG, Get Us PPE, Doctors for America, and several other health groups, along with nearly 300 medical professionals, sent a letter to the Trump Administration on Friday calling for central coordination of the medical supply chain and comprehensive testing infrastructure.

The coronavirus pandemic is reminding us, once again, of how expensive the nation’s health care system is. It’s the high cost of health care that makes health insurance so expensive for individual consumers, employers and the nation, and the cost and structure of insurance can have real consequences for health.

Elizabeth Ridlington, Frontier Group Senior Policy Analyst explores some questions about how the coronavirus will affect health care spending overall and by governments, and the health care system itself.

U.S.PIRG is planning a social media day of action for Tuesday April 28, calling on President Donald Trump and Adm. Brett Giroir, the U.S. testing chief, to take charge of building a comprehensive testing infrastructure across the country. Citizens across the country are being asked to go on Facebook and Twitter to share the reasons why they want additional testing alongside the #MoreTestsNow hashtag.

U.S. PIRG has been calling on manufacturers of ventilators to release all the service information needed for biomedical technicians to repair that equipment. Increasingly, those companies are posting the requested information online.

U.S. PIRG joined leading consumer groups and bank trade associations in a joint letter urging Congress at the soonest possible opportunity to clarify that economic impact payments responding to this public health emergency are exempt from otherwise legally binding garnishment orders.

Closing streets (or parts of streets) to non-necessary cars on some routes around grocery stores, pharmacies, hospitals and other essential locations can help make travel safer during a time of necessary physical distancing. It will also create safe passages for people to walk and bike, which may also help reduce crowding in parks and on trails, where people have been congregating in an attempt to get outside and get exercise during quarantine.

The biggest stimulus package in U.S. history deserves the most transparency in U.S. history. Nothing could be clearer than that. Public comment submitted to the Federal Reserve by R.J. Cross and U.S. PIRG.

U.S. PIRG is calling on Congress to act immediately to keep the postal service open and serving the American public. Specifically, it must include the financial relief USPS needs as part of the fourth COVID-19 relief package.

During an online discussion hosted by the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, Richard Cordray laid out urgent consumer protection priorities for Congress and the Trump administration, while offering advice to consumers struggling at this difficult time.

Given the recent steep drop in highway traffic, and associated lost gas tax revenues, some federal aid to state transportation agencies seems likely. But the emergency caused by COVID-19 should not lead us to rush to complete the build-out of highway projects that were bad ideas in the first place – much less fuel a new round of wasteful highway construction under the guise of “stimulus.”

U.S. PIRG has been pressuring ventilator manufacturers to remove restrictions on who can fix these life-saving devices. Our efforts, along with those of our allies at Repair.org, got a boost when five state treasurers sent a letter to manufacturers calling for them to release proprietary repair manuals, service keys, schematics and repair software.

More than 40 million Americans spend time caring for children or elderly family members without pay -- and that figure doesn't include the millions more that have joined their ranks to look after their young, elderly or ill loved ones since the beginning of the coronavirus crisis. Families who want to take care of those they love should have all the support they need.

We are just weeks away from the United States’ expected COVID-19 peak, and as scores of state and local officials are making clear, rather than rollbacks, we need broader testing capacity with the federal government leading the effort.

Scammers and other bad actors are trying to take advantage of Americans’ heightened fears around the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, and fraud complaints are soaring. Consumer complaints to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) related to the virus surpassed 15,000.

Never before, not even during the Great Recession in 2008, has the Federal Reserve directed so much money to help so many companies so quickly. Its unprecedented efforts may prove essential. But with unprecedented power comes unprecedented responsibility to inform and engage the public.

President Donald Trump announced yesterday he was removing the independent head of the federal watchdog panel charged with overseeing disbursement of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act funds, less than two weeks after Congress passed the stimulus bill to deal with the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis. In response, U.S. PIRG Tax and Budget advocate R.J. Cross released a statement.

The emergence of the novel coronavirus has been a shock to our health care system, our economic system, our communities, our relationships and our psyches. What makes some of those systems more able to absorb, respond and rebuild from shocks than others?

Wisconsin is holding its spring elections Tuesday despite the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak causing a state stay-at-home order and social distancing guidelines that advise against gatherings of any size. Peter Skopec, director of WISPIRG, issued the following statement in response.

Rich Cordray, the first director of the CFPB, has issued a powerful memo to its current director, Kathy Kraninger, urging her to stop "relaxing" duties on financial firms and to "lose no further time" in "shield[ing] households and families" from the "economic harms" they face as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

A new investigation by ProPublica, along with reporting by numerous other outlets, has revealed that suppliers are using the COVID-19 public health emergency to drive up prices exorbitantly on medical equipment.

U.S. PIRG Education Fund released a guide with tips for how consumers can negotiate with their banks to lower interest rates, waive overdraft fees, and agree on payment plans to provide more financial peace of mind in the months to come.

Nearly one in six of the products sold directly by Amazon had price spikes 50 percent higher than the average price. Urge your attorney ageneral to protect consumers from being taken advantage of during this pandemic by investigating Amazon and other online marketplaces for enabling price gouging.

Deciding not to fly is a healthy choice during the novel coronavirus pandemic, as the CDC recommends we all practice social distancing. Travelers who cancel their plans to protect their health shouldn't have to take a financial hit for making a responsible choice.

In response to a critical shortage of ventilators needed to keep severe COVID-19 patients breathing, President Donald Trump ordered General Motors to produce the life-saving machines under the Defense Production Act.

Congress is poised to approve spending more tax dollars in a single stimulus bill than ever before in U.S. history. With so much money on the line, taxpayers need to know that their dollars will be well spent.

A bipartisan group of attorneys general from 33 states, led by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro, are calling on the country’s top online marketplaces to crack down on price gouging amidst the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

We're calling on the U.S. secretary of labor to enact an emergency standard to protect frontline workers, including first responders and health care workers, from the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Ensuring their safety will help ensure all of ours.

To prevent economic disaster in the face of the disease's spread, we need strong regulation more than ever — but big banks are using the coronavirus as an opportunity to call for reckless deregulation.

Without adequate testing for the novel coronavirus, health professionals are in the dark. We are calling on Adm. Brett Giroir, who is the Assistant Secretary for Health and the federal point person for COVID-19 testing response, to immediately adopt and follow through on a plan to make sure that everyone who needs a test, gets a test.

Many college students are worried about how campus shutdowns will affect their ability to put food on the table and pay bills. Here are a few of the ways that institutions are stepping up to meet students’ basic needs in this moment of uncertainty.

Congress needs to relieve the financial pressures of social distancing so that people don't need to choose between their family's health and paying the bills. Cancelling student loan payments for the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic will allow Americans to keep food on the table and stay safe.